On Real Estate & More – March 2019

Instead of staying at a hotel, more and more travelers are staying in short-term vacation rentals they find through online rental services like Airbnb, HomeAway, VRBO, FlipKey, and many others. By far the main reason most people use short-term rental websites like Airbnb is to save money. It can be much cheaper to stay in an apartment or home rented through an online service than a hotel. Not only that, you can often get more room for your money, making these short-term rentals particularly cost-effective for families.

Ashland, Jacksonville and other cities in Oregon have struggled with how to treat short-term rentals, where property owners either rent rooms or entire houses to people on vacations. Websites such as Airbnb and VRBO have led to more rentals by owners in residential neighborhoods. A search today of the Airbnb site for short-term rentals in Jacksonville listed 30 properties available.

In the City of Jacksonville, a vacation rental is defined as the rental of a home (or portion of a home) for payment for a period of less than 30 days. This includes whole-house rentals as well as the rental of individual rooms in a house while the owner is present. A B&B is different as it’s defined as an owner-occupied, historically-listed establishment in a residential district having rooms or apartments rented or kept for rent. Long-term rentals are 30 days or more and are considered an outright permitted use in existing, permitted residential structures.

Typical complaints about short-term vacation rental include issues with parking, lack of on-site supervision and maximum occupancy as well as consequences for long-term rental availability and potential impacts on affordable housing. Besides lacking planning approval, property owners may not have business licenses or be paying transient lodging taxes.

In Jacksonville, there are only two zone districts where short-term vacation rentals may be conditionally approved: General Commercial and Historic Core. For all other zone districts, short-term vacation rentals are not permitted. Only long-term rentals (30 days or more), are permitted in residential districts. There is a Conditional Use Permit process for Bed and Breakfast facilities, but only owner-occupied residences which are on the Jacksonville Contributing Historic Landmark List may be permitted as a Bed & Breakfast, subject to Planning Commission approval.

So before operating a short-term vacation rental in either of the zones where vacation rentals may be permitted, property owners need to apply for a land use permit (Performance Review) with the City of Jacksonville Planning Department. The Performance Review is evaluated by the Planning Commission to assess impacts the use will have on city facilities and neighborhoods. If approved, short-term rental permit holders must then also obtain a business license with the City of Jacksonville and pay the transient lodging tax.